My Left Foot

It all began one afternoon at home in 2003. I was running to the garage for some reason and I slipped on our tile and jammed my left big toe into the wall. After cursing and fighting back the tears I moved on. During the next few weeks my toenail started looking and feeling weirder. Two days before I started medical school I was cleaning my new apartment and jammed my left big toe AGAIN into the vaccuum. This time because of the previous trauma it uprooted the nail. Great. I wrapped my half attached toenail with tissue and tape, made my way to Kaiser and had it removed. Problem solved? NOPE.

Three years later my toenail was ingrown, painful and infected. I had been to the doctor twice for the problem. Both told me they didn't think it was an infection and it was just from the trauma. And neither wanted to prescribe oral antifungals for some reason. I finally got a referral to a podiatrist who suggested that we either leave it alone and continue the home remedies(soaking in water/bleach), extract the toenail again and see how it grows back, or extract the toenail and make it so it never grows back. I tried option number one for a few months but the toe just got so painful. So I scheduled a toenail extraction for my left foot on October 17.

October 7th was my cousin Grace's wedding. I was in the bridal party, as was my other cousin Novette.
We were taking piictures before the ceremony. The last set of pictures were to be taken with the golf carts. Like this:


Since the bridesmaids got there first, we had to drive the golf carts to the site. In order to get to the site however, we had to hop a sidewalk onto the street and hop the sidewalk to get back onto the green. I watched as the bride and her maid of honor successfully made it across. It didn't seem so hard.


So I took the wheel

with Novette next to me and followed their path. As we reached the green I heard cries of "No!" and "Watch out!." Before I knew it the whole golf cart was toppling over into this ditch. Miraculously, we escaped dresses unstained, hair and makeup intact except for some water on our dresses and some injuries on our---you guessed it left feet. We both had some abrasions and bruising, but Novette's foot was by far the worst. We were able to walk down the isle and party
it up.

By the next day Novette's foot had swelled up and she was unable to walk.

Fortunately, neither of us had fractured our left feet. The radiologist I was working with was nice enough to provide these lovely x-rays of my left foot.

Novette has to wear a brace to immobilize her foot in addition to keeping it elevated.

On October 17th, I had my surgery to get my left big toenail removed. It hurt like hell because the local anesthetic hadn't fully taken effect but I'm glad it's out. They gave me good aftercare instructions so hopefully my nail will grow back normal. But for now I gotta keep my left foot elevated. :)

(Who knew I could write so much about my left foot huh?)

The reason for my trip to Philadelphia was the clincial portion of my Step 2 Boards.  I arrived in the city around 7am after a red-eye flight during which I had trouble sleeping.  My old roommate Amy was going to meet me later on in the day.  We stayed at the Travelodge in Center City.

Unfortunately the hotel room wasn't ready when I got there so I had hours to kill.  Double unfortunately my phone was not working.  It was on permanent roaming which would have been fine but it wasn't connecting at all.  So I decided to wander around the city visiting the old familiar places, which I came to find out were not so familiar anymore, while also looking for a Sprint store.

First stop was my favorite streets/alleys in the city.   It sits right across the street from.....a car wash

After that I headed towards my old apartment when I passed the corner market that is now....a Quiznos? 

Then I see my old apartment which used to sit above a Cash Today store which I also used to work at.  Turns out Cash Today bought the whole building, taking out St. Georges bar downstairs and knocking the building down next to it.

That's my old room on the third floor in the middle picture.  It's good to know that some things don't change tho:

 Good old Jakes Pizza

 Chinese Food Cart!!!!  Lemon Chicken please.

 Green Village Market next to Olgas Pizza(1.25 for a slice!

 And last but not least the cart on 15th street that serves THE BEST meatball sub for 2 bucks!

I then passed by the LOVE sign and the fountain which was PINK! for breast cancer awareness. 

At around 9am I finally got to Liberty Place Shops which has a Sprint Store in it, but it was closed til 930.  So I decided to study in the rotunda and hang out with my ipod.

 (view as i look up from studying).  As I studied I decided to look through my pictures.  My camera then flashes..."error with memory card" and then "no images."  NOOOOO.  Luckily I had brought my Dell Pocket PC which had a compatible memory card.  SAVED!

The Sprint Store finally opened, but it didn't matter because my phone started working. Yay!  My spirits brightened I bopped my way to Rittenhouse Square in search of a Cosi and a perfectly heated mint mocha.

I found a Cosi, however, they ran out of mint and I burned my tongue.  Ha!

Luckily my ipod was there to keep me company.  After I finished my coffee, I shopped at the H&M I found across the street and another store I can't remember.  I ventured into the park and people watched.  I REALLY just wanted to sleep.  I called the hotel and the lady told me yet again that the room was not ready.  Sad.  But, again, my ipod was there to comfort me...in addition to the random bird.

When Amy arrived at around noon, our room still wasn't available.  We ate lunch at Reading Terminal where I ate the meatball sub I had bought earlier.  Afterwards we got green tea boba from the chinese bakery.  Our friend Wylie met up with us there.  Dinner was held at Penang's where I ate MANGO TOFU!  yum.

The next day Amy and I had Pho and bbq pork at the Vietnam Restaurant and headed to this little thing called CPE Step 2 of the boards.  That went well I think.  Nothing really much to say since they prohibit me from discussing the exam with others haha.  Afterwards we met Wylie at Westy's for Karaoke and Wings!

And even tho I only got a slight buzz, the best part was that our bill only came out to $50.50!  Four beers, 3 black russians, 2 shots of buttery nipples, 2 jagger shots, 2 captain and cokes, one vodka tonic and an order of wings!  Awesome.

The next morning I headed out at 6:30am to fly to Detroit for my cousins wedding.  It was raining and I was tired....but luckily I had my trusty ipod.  :)